Residents in the neighborhood of Bear Ridge Cove near Draper,
Utah, are finding out what so many people in the western US learn every year:
Even though you escaped the fire, you’re not necessarily out of the woods.
Last fall, a wildfire burned
through the Draper area. Last week, after heavy rains, homeowners were once more
feeling its effects in the form of a mudslide, as hills that had lost their
vegetation in the fire shed debris into houses and yards.
Residents and volunteers were
placing sandbags and digging diversion trenches to try to prevent the mud and
water from entering their homes.
Also working in the area were
crews from the US Forest Service, the so-called “Interagency Hotshot Crews” who
perform various emergency duties. Often they’re fighting fires, but in this case
they were working on flood control, including repairing the flood-control fences
designed to catch debris coming off the hillsides and cleaning out catch basins.
The hotshot crews are employed at various locations by the Forest Service, the
Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and Native American
tribes, as well a by the states of Alaska and Utah.
Draper is one of the latest sites experiencing the long-term effects of
fires, but many regions have the same problems in the year or two after a blaze.
Here in southern California, where Erosion Control’s offices are located,
we’re facing the same issue. We have set up a web site, www.sberosioncontrol.com, for the southern
California area with links to local resources, along with links to articles from
our past issues on post-fire erosion and sediment control.